From MarketingProfs.com’s Marketing Challenge: Gross Sales vs. Gross Profit: Our star salesman is the best closer I’ve ever seen. He sells products and services. He’s paid a salary plus commission on gross sales. He does have some pricing latitude. I’ve noticed a fairly stable gross profit percentage on products, but it’s much different on service sales. It looks like he’s “giving away” services to get more product sales. Service costs are somewhat vague and hard to accurately measure, but I need to grow the service side of our business profitably. Should I switch his commission structure to a gross profit percentage on services? In a word, yes. Gross profit is… Read More
Continue ReadingOverwritten Sales Ads
You don’t have to read this, just look at it’s sheer girth: Qualifications/Necessary Skills: Attention to Detail. Able to be alert in a high-risk environment; follow detailed procedures and ensure accuracy in documentation and data; concentrate on routine work details and organize and maintain a system of records. Able to clearly present information through the spoken or written word; read and interpret complex information; talk with customers or clients; listens well. Able to use a win-win approach to resolve controversy; stay objective and fair when dealing with sensitive situations; maintain constructive working relationships despite disagreement. Able to take action in solving problems while exhibiting judgment and a realistic understanding of… Read More
Continue ReadingListening For The Close
There are many articles discussing the need for salespeople to be good listeners though it seems like a challenge area for many salespeople. Entrepreneur.com’s Listen And Learn When Making A Sale provides 4 ways to start working on listening skills. I am particularly fond of this one: 2. Dig deeper. Don€™t settle for what the customer says on the surface; have him expand on his key needs and challenges. This helps me uncover hot buttons (very important points that the customer says and that I circle, highlight or star on my notepad), which I can use later to explain how my product or service will address them. Sometimes it might… Read More
Continue ReadingTraining And Retention
CareerJournal.com offers this quick read – Hiring and Cultivating Employees Who Succeed – which covers the critical topics of hiring and retaining top talent. This opening statement obviously caught my attention: Business owner Andrew Field says he used to hire based on gut instinct. No longer. My kind of owner – one who has experienced the debacle of bad hiring decisions made on instinct instead of objective analysis. Their solution has been to use a multiple interviewer process that I would question, but they have lowered their turnover by half. If they were to objectively assess in their process, they could lower that turnover rate even further. Here is the… Read More
Continue Reading21st Century Marketing
After the Cartoon Network debacle of last month in Boston, it now appears another company is attempting more moronic marketing in the same manner. A clue in a Dr Pepper promotion suggested a coin that might be worth as much as $1 million was buried in the 347-year-old Granary Burying Ground, the final resting place of John Hancock, Paul Revere, Samuel Adams and other historic figures. After contestants showed up at the cemetery gates early Tuesday, the city closed it, concerned that it would be damaged by treasure hunters. It is obvious that this company knew what it was doing. Placing a coin in a national cemetery is pathetic. I… Read More
Continue Reading10 Simple Hiring Rules
Monster.com offers Hire Great People: 10 Simple Rules which contains some straight-forward, sound advice for any hiring activity. The article starts out with one of the most important rules to hiring (and often least followed): Rule number one is clear, but very counterintuitive: Don’t ever, ever hire somebody just like yourself. Why not? Because from the beginning of time, executives have been unconsciously cloning themselves, stocking the shelves with vanilla young men from impressive schools. It takes an enlightened executive to abide by this rule. Many executives believe they embody the gold standard for the position (especially in sales). They may be, but the best teams we evaluate have a… Read More
Continue ReadingSigns Of A Bad Fit
BusinessWeek.com’s Think Before You Speak or Write provides a couple excellent stories regarding candidates who did a great job of putting their foot in their mouth. How would you like to receive this email? “I’m disappointed that the job you’re advertising pays much less than I’m used to making. It would be almost impossible for me to survive on the salary listed in the ad. Can you please tell me how much travel is required?” Not the way to initiate a dialogue. I’ve encountered this short approach when sourcing also. I actually received an email from one candidate that pointedly asked: Do I not qualify for the position that you… Read More
Continue ReadingExposing HR Myths
We had a chance to contribute to an article that appears in Ragan’s Management Resource’s newsletter Employee Recruitment & Retention this month. The article is titled Experts explode the HR industry’s biggest myths and reads like a collection of short essays on many surprising HR/hiring topics. My contribution (I get the byline though Lee assisted me) involves debunking the conventional wisdom that all good salespeople are extroverts. Nope, that isn’t true. The tease: My advice would be to look at a salesperson’s qualifying skills in the hiring process as opposed to their linguistic mannerisms. Watch for their ability to ask pertinent questions regarding the opportunity. Some candidates will be outgoing,… Read More
Continue ReadingGen Y Workers Want…
This: “a high level of connectivity and collaboration with employees at all levels of the organization – but especially with young, like-minded professionals.” According to a short article in Managesmarter.com’s What Gen Y Wants At Work. The one item we have seen the most in this generation: Connection. This is often lacking. Just over 80 percent of Gen Y workers say they feel disconnected from the information flow, politics and career opportunities in their organization. We have seen some fairly brash Gen Y candidates, but I think the confidence many of them exude is valuable. This generation has an incredibly flattened hierarchical mindset. They view the company org chart in… Read More
Continue ReadingTime-Outs At Work
Yes, you read that correctly. This is the topic covered in SHRM’s February issue of HR Magazine. The article titled “Days of Contemplation” (membership required) has the tagline “Have a problem employee? Give him a time-out to decide whether to come back fully committed or to move on.” The article discusses the use of paid decision-making leaves or “days of contemplation.” Here is the premise behind it’s use: Adult learning theory will tell you that when you treat people like adults, they will respond in kind. Unlike formal discipline, which tends to punish workers formally for substandard job performance or inappropriate workplace conduct, decision-making leaves are much more subtle. More… Read More
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